US 29th Infantry Division

The 29th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the US Army that was active from 1917 to 1968 and from 1985 onwards. The division contained units from Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia, and it was nicknamed "The Blue and Gray" for having soldiers from both the north and south (referring to the uniforms of the Union and Confederacy during the American Civil War). The division was deployed to France during World War I, and it was again called up for service during World War II, taking part in the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944 before advancing into the French countryside. The division fought bitterly in the Normandy hedgerows on the way to Saint-Lo, which it took during Operation Cobra in July. The division then took part in the battles for Vire and Brest in France, and it moved to the Teveren-Geilenkirchen line in Germany in October 1944. On 16 November 1944, the division advanced on the Roer River, blasting its way through Siersdorf, Setterich, Durboslar, and Bettendorf, and reaching the river by the end of the month. From 8 December 1944 to 23 February 1945, the division held defensive positions along the Rur River, and it later advanced through Julich, Broich, Immerath, and Titz to Monchengladbach by 1 March 1945. In March, the division left combat, and it later helped to mop up resistance in the Ruhr area, later pushing to the Elbe and holding defensive positions there. During the war, the division lost 3,887 dead, 15,541 wounded, 347 missing, 845 captured, and 8,665 non-combat casualties. The division remained a part of the US National Guard until it was inactivated in 1968, although it was reactivated in 1985, taking part in peacekeeping in Bosnia and Kosovo and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.